(Dun Laoghaire, Ireland)- Ireland’s largest sailing event, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, came to a gentle close Sunday afternoon after an exciting four days of racing in Dublin Bay with 500 boats and almost 2,500 sailors competing.
A light northerly breeze of six knots allowed organizers to complete nearly all 290 scheduled races with many class titles hanging on the outcome of the final race.
Many of the hottest boats were racing the IRC Coastal class of twenty-eight boats. It was tough competition and J/Teams faired well overall. Taking the silver overall was Peter Dunlop’s J/109 MOJITO, while Nigel Ingram’s J/109 JET STREAM took 4th place. In the IRC B Coastal division, MOJITO won, leading a J/sweep of the podium. Second was JET STREAM and third was Lindsay Casey & Denis Power’s J/97 WINDJAMMER.
In the Celtic Cup RC35 class, two J/109s swept the top honors. Winning was Pat Kelly’s STORM and taking the silver was Brian & John Hall’s SOMETHING ELSE.
In the IRC Cruiser 0 class of six yachts, Jonathan Anderson’s J/122E EL GRAN SENOR from the Clyde Cruising Club in Scotland started the regatta slowly and closed with a 3rd place average to take 4th in class, just 2 pts off the podium.
The twenty-seven boat IRC Cruiser 1 class was the most competitive and hardest class, especially because sixteen J/109s were vying for summer series offshore honors as well. Not surprisingly, J/Teams swept the top six places. The first five teams were all J/109s. Winning was John Maybury’s JOKER 2, taking the silver was Tim & Richard Goodbody’s WHITE MISCHIEF, the bronze went to Pat Kelly’s STORM, fourth was Cowell Murphy’s OUTRAJEOUS, and fifth was Brian Jones’ JELLY BABY. Taking 6th was the newly launched J/99 JUGGERKNOT 2 sailed by the trio of Andrew Algeo, Richard Knatchbull, & Paul Nolan from Royal Irish YC.
The IRC Cruiser 3 had a gaggle of J/24s. Top team was Steve Atkinson’s BAD in fourth and Flor O’Driscoll’s HARD ON PORT took fifth place.
The fourteen-boat J/80 class experienced a bit of a runaway in the form of Jonathan O’Dowd’s Royal St George YC crew on JABS, winning quite handily with a scoreline that only counted podium finishes for 11 pts net. The race for the balance of the top five was quite spirited as only two points separated them at the conclusion of the regatta. Tied for second on 22 pts each were Philip Watson’s JAM JAR and Robert Dix’s JEANNIE, with JAM JAR winning the countback. Fourth place went to Norbert Reilly’s RED CLOUD and fifth was Conall O’Halloran’s JITTERBUG. Sailing photo credits- David Branigan For more Dun Laoghaire Regatta sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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